Supporting our music

BURBANK: This is with reference to your story on the state of live music today titled ‘Concerts remain an elusive dream’ (April 24). Mekaal Hasan Band and Fuzon are two of the best live acts in the country and it is sad that the lack of concerts has deprived their fans of watching them on stage. It is even sadder that their only real means of income has dried up and that they have to look for alternative means to make ends meet. Meekal Hasan’s suggestion is absolutely correct, that music first needs to be recognized as an industry.

The arts council is regularly given funds for the promotion of Pakistani art and culture so there really is little reason why that cannot be extended to the field of music. Ali Hamza and Omar Bilal Akhtar are very talented musicians but even they are being forced to use other avenues to make money. In Pakistan, most musicians make money not from album sales but from concerts and that is why the recent downturn in the number of concerts is so bad for them.